Read Online Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! by Bathroom Readers’ Institute - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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Creatures Great & Small
The largest dinosaur was probably the Argentinosaurus. It grew to be 120 feet long and weighed 110 tons.
Some prehistoric dragonflies had wingspans as big as a hawk’s.
A hummingbird egg is the size of a Tic-Tac breath mint. A hummingbird nest can be the size of a walnut shell.
The world’s largest goldfish is 15 inches long. (He lives in Hong Kong and is named Bruce.)
The largest American alligator measured 19.8 feet in length.
Largest land invertebrate: the coconut crab. It can grow to be three feet across and cracks open coconuts with its pincers.
Longest snake in the world: the reticulated python, which can grow to more than 33 feet.
The annual Banana Slug Derby at California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is held on a course that’s 18 inches long.
World’s largest animal…ever: the blue whale. It can grow to be 70 feet long and can weigh up to 200 tons.
The largest bacterium can grow to the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Smallest mammal on earth: the Etruscan shrew. It weighs less than a penny.
Largest rodent in North America and second-largest in the world: the beaver. (The world’s largest is the South American capybara, which looks like a big guinea pig.)
The tentacles of the giant arctic jellyfish can grow to be 120 feet long.
Space Facts
In space, fish swim in loops, rather than straight lines.
First Canadian in space: Marc Garneau (1984).
Animals that have flown in space: dogs, chimps, mice, spiders, frogs, and jellyfish.
The Apollo 11 lunar module had only 30 seconds of fuel left when it landed safely on the Moon.
According to NASA, the foods astronauts miss the most are pizza, ice cream, and soda.
To date, only one man-made satellite has been destroyed by a meteor: the European Space Agency’s Olympus (1993).
Outer space officially begins 62 miles up.
Astronauts gave Walter Cronkite an “honorary astronaut” title for his 24-hour coverage of Apollo 11 .
Nineteen years elapsed between the first and second women in space. Both were Russians.
First African American woman in space: Mae Jemison on the space shuttle Endeavour .
Foreign Flora
The mango is the world’s most popular fruit, but the most harvested are grapes, followed by bananas, apples, coconuts, and plantains.
For 3,000 years, hemp was the world’s largest agricultural crop.
There were more than 300 banana-related accidents in Britain in 2001. (Most people slipped on peels.)
A coffee tree yields about one pound of coffee in a year.
China grows more pears than any other country in the world.
China also grows the most sweet potatoes worldwide.
A company in Lancashire, England, grew the world’s tallest tomato plant—it reached a height of 65 feet.
The national symbol of Wales is the leek.
World’s smallest tree: the dwarf willow of the arctic tundra, which reaches only about two inches high.
The jungle’s most pest-ridden tree: the cacao, the source of chocolate’s main ingredient.
Cacao trees grow only in tropical climates, 20 degrees north or south of the equator.
The largest (and possibly smelliest) flower on earth is the Rafflesia arnoldii , which grows in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra. It’s nicknamed the “stinking corpse lily” and smells like a dead body.
Just 2 percent of Antarctica’s soil is free of ice, so only hardy plants grow there, including lichens, mosses, fungi, and liverwort.
Every second, the world’s rain forests lose about two football fields’ worth of area.
Scientific Numbers
This page is about 500,000 atoms thick.
You have to process 88,000 pounds of liquefied air to get a single pound of neon gas.
At –90°F, your breath will freeze in midair…and drop to the ground.
Quick! Convert –40°C into Fahrenheit! Answer: –40°F. (It’s the one temperature that’s the same in both systems.)
A hundred calories will propel a bicycle three miles or drive a car 280 feet.
A gallon of water weighs 8.34
Creatures Great & Small
The largest dinosaur was probably the Argentinosaurus. It grew to be 120 feet long and weighed 110 tons.
Some prehistoric dragonflies had wingspans as big as a hawk’s.
A hummingbird egg is the size of a Tic-Tac breath mint. A hummingbird nest can be the size of a walnut shell.
The world’s largest goldfish is 15 inches long. (He lives in Hong Kong and is named Bruce.)
The largest American alligator measured 19.8 feet in length.
Largest land invertebrate: the coconut crab. It can grow to be three feet across and cracks open coconuts with its pincers.
Longest snake in the world: the reticulated python, which can grow to more than 33 feet.
The annual Banana Slug Derby at California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is held on a course that’s 18 inches long.
World’s largest animal…ever: the blue whale. It can grow to be 70 feet long and can weigh up to 200 tons.
The largest bacterium can grow to the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Smallest mammal on earth: the Etruscan shrew. It weighs less than a penny.
Largest rodent in North America and second-largest in the world: the beaver. (The world’s largest is the South American capybara, which looks like a big guinea pig.)
The tentacles of the giant arctic jellyfish can grow to be 120 feet long.
Space Facts
In space, fish swim in loops, rather than straight lines.
First Canadian in space: Marc Garneau (1984).
Animals that have flown in space: dogs, chimps, mice, spiders, frogs, and jellyfish.
The Apollo 11 lunar module had only 30 seconds of fuel left when it landed safely on the Moon.
According to NASA, the foods astronauts miss the most are pizza, ice cream, and soda.
To date, only one man-made satellite has been destroyed by a meteor: the European Space Agency’s Olympus (1993).
Outer space officially begins 62 miles up.
Astronauts gave Walter Cronkite an “honorary astronaut” title for his 24-hour coverage of Apollo 11 .
Nineteen years elapsed between the first and second women in space. Both were Russians.
First African American woman in space: Mae Jemison on the space shuttle Endeavour .
Foreign Flora
The mango is the world’s most popular fruit, but the most harvested are grapes, followed by bananas, apples, coconuts, and plantains.
For 3,000 years, hemp was the world’s largest agricultural crop.
There were more than 300 banana-related accidents in Britain in 2001. (Most people slipped on peels.)
A coffee tree yields about one pound of coffee in a year.
China grows more pears than any other country in the world.
China also grows the most sweet potatoes worldwide.
A company in Lancashire, England, grew the world’s tallest tomato plant—it reached a height of 65 feet.
The national symbol of Wales is the leek.
World’s smallest tree: the dwarf willow of the arctic tundra, which reaches only about two inches high.
The jungle’s most pest-ridden tree: the cacao, the source of chocolate’s main ingredient.
Cacao trees grow only in tropical climates, 20 degrees north or south of the equator.
The largest (and possibly smelliest) flower on earth is the Rafflesia arnoldii , which grows in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra. It’s nicknamed the “stinking corpse lily” and smells like a dead body.
Just 2 percent of Antarctica’s soil is free of ice, so only hardy plants grow there, including lichens, mosses, fungi, and liverwort.
Every second, the world’s rain forests lose about two football fields’ worth of area.
Scientific Numbers
This page is about 500,000 atoms thick.
You have to process 88,000 pounds of liquefied air to get a single pound of neon gas.
At –90°F, your breath will freeze in midair…and drop to the ground.
Quick! Convert –40°C into Fahrenheit! Answer: –40°F. (It’s the one temperature that’s the same in both systems.)
A hundred calories will propel a bicycle three miles or drive a car 280 feet.
A gallon of water weighs 8.34
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